Chelsea 3 PSG 0: Palmer's brilliance, total prize money, President Trump and MetLife's dress rehearsal

New York Times

a day ago

Cole Palmer inspired Chelsea to a surprisingly dominant victory in the Club World Cup final, defeating Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain at MetLife Stadium.
Kick-off was delayed by eight minutes at the stadium that will hold next summer's World Cup final as the showpiece match in FIFA's expanded club competition was preceded by a military flyover, the national anthem (with President Trump in attendance) and various performers.
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Palmer, who had struggled to find his early-season form in the second half of the campaign, scored two brilliant first-half goals as the Premier League club's new-look attack was too much for their Ligue 1 opponents. To make matters worse, they had Joao Neves sent off late on after being spotted by VAR tugging on Marc Cucurella's hair.
PSG had only conceded three goals twice in a game in 2024-25, but Chelsea swept them aside in a brilliant first 45 minutes to claim the title and with it more than $100million in prize money.
Oliver Kay, Mark Carey and Tim Spiers break down the action from New Jersey's MetLife Stadium.
If anything, this is conclusive proof the Conference League is the best and toughest competition in the world.
Look, people may try and besmirch Chelsea's pretty remarkable success by saying this is a competition teams didn't take seriously (which isn't true) or that fatigue has been an issue (it's been the same for everybody).
In reality, you can't downplay or understate Chelsea's achievement here.
After Cole Palmer, who once again proved to be the big player for the big stage, the most credit must go to Enzo Maresca, who just a few weeks ago looked on very dodgy ground with many fans feeling he wasn't the best fit for the Blues, particularly with his insistence on playing out from the back which was seriously trying the patience of the Stamford Bridge faithful.
However, in a similar vein to Ange Postecoglou changing Tottenham Hotspur's approach and winning a trophy in the process, Chelsea cut out the nonsense at the back here and employed a simple high press and stuck some classic long balls over the top of PSG's confused defence. It worked a treat and showed Maresca is tactically flexible.
He has gone from being a possible sacking contender this summer (hey, this is Chelsea, you can still never say never) to qualifying for the Champions League and winning two trophies in the space of two months.
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And Chelsea suddenly look capable of being able to aim even higher next season. Best team in the world? No, this result was a huge surprise and if they played the match again tomorrow you'd probably get a different result. Best team in England? Still no. But something special may not be too far down the line on this evidence. Chelsea's young guns are blooming.
Tim Spiers
With a star-studded PSG line-up arriving at the MetLife stadium as heavy favourites, there was one Chelsea player in particular who wanted a word.
Cole Palmer is unassuming in his off-field demeanour, but it was the 23-year-old lad from Wythenshawe who shone brightest on Sunday afternoon as he almost single-handedly shattered Parisian spirits. Remarkably, his two first-half goals were near-carbon copy finishes as he arrived on the edge of the box to convert.
For the second counter-attacking finish, Palmer darted away on the right flank before getting the ball out of his feet, offering a shimmy and a shake, before passing it coolly — yes, ice coolly — into the bottom corner, just as he did only minutes before.
Who needs power against a 6ft 5in Gianluigi Donnarumma when you can pass it in the net so accurately?
In truth, a lot of the space that Palmer was able to find was thanks to the movement and selfless runs of his team-mates. Yes, his own movement and appreciation of space is one of the best among his peers, but this Chelsea side is set up to get the most out of their No 10 and Sunday's performance was the perfect example of it working.
Given the up-and-down season he has had, Palmer has reserved some of his best form for the big stage this summer. Whether he plays on the left or right half space of Chelsea's attack, he impacts games more than any of his team-mates.To anyone who might have doubted him when his performances dipped in recent months, more fool you.
Mark Carey
'Sixty-three Super Bowls in one month!' That was the claim from FIFA president Gianni Infantino before the Club World Cup began, promising — or perhaps threat should be threatening — that every game at this tournament would be preceded with the kind of razzmatazz for which NFL's annual showpiece is known.
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It hasn't really felt like that for the most part, with some of the gimmicks like individual pre-match walk-outs falling flat. But the final at MetLife Stadium certainly felt like a showpiece event, complete with a half-time show featuring J Balvin, Tems, Doja Cat, Emmanuel Kelly and Coldplay's Chris Martin and a firework display that would shame many a New Year's Eve event.
Football has been heading cautiously in that direction with Champions League and World Cup finals in recent years, but this — whether for better or worse, depending on your perspective — was a different level. It began to feel as if this was a FIFA showpiece event built around a football match rather than the other way around.
As for the pre-match ceremony, there were some audible boos from the crowd when President Trump appeared on the big screen during the singing of 'The Star-Spangled Banner'.
Still, Trump, sitting near Infantino in the VIP section, appeared to enjoy the occasion. 'I am having a really great time,' he told DAZN. 'Tremendous sport.'
The match kicked off eight minutes late and, even after that, the half-time interval stretched to 24 minutes rather than the standard 15.
It's football, Gianni, but not as we know it.
Oliver Kay
It was not just silverware that Enzo Maresca's side picked up in the U.S., they also improved their financial situation by taking home more than $100million in prize money.
Though the club will not be taking part in their usual lucrative pre-season tour due to their participation in the Club World Cup, winning FIFA's expanded club competition should ease the pain.
As shown in the table below, Chelsea take home an estimated $114.6m from winning the tournament, which puts them just ahead of runners-up PSG, who take home $106.9m and Real Madrid with $82.5m.
Chris Weatherspoon
For all Chelsea's ruthlessness in putting PSG to the sword, this was a completely unexpected no-show from a team that had previously scored 16 goals and conceded one throughout the tournament.
Conceding three goals in 45 minutes felt like by some distance their worst defensive performance of the season.
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In fact it was only the third time that PSG conceded at least three goals in the first 43 minutes of a match since the start of the QSI ownership era in 2011. The other two times, they came back to avoid defeat, against Lyon in 2012 and Amiens in 2020.
And as if to sum up a terrible day for the Champions League winners, Joao Neves was sent off late on after being spotted by VAR tugging on Marc Cucurella's hair.
As for this season, in their previous 64 matches in 2024/25 they had conceded three in the whole of a meaningful match on just one occasion, in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final at Aston Villa (but went through 5-4 on aggregate), with the other being a 3-1 defeat to Nice in Ligue 1 after the French title had already been secured.
Basically, the new PSG just don't implode in this manner and the absence of Willian Pacho was keenly felt, with Lucas Beraldo being pulled between New York and New Jersey during a horrible first half performance.
For the first goal – and in another rarity — Nuno Mendes was completely done by Malo Gusto, leaving PSG exposed four-on-three.
For the second, Vitinha decided to show Palmer inside onto his left foot, which the Chelsea man tends to enjoy doing from time to time, before Beraldo barely bothered to close him down, allowing a five-yard gap in which Palmer could pick his spot.
Then for the third, Palmer could run through a yawning gap between midfield and defence, before a non-existent defensive line allowed him to slip in Pedro behind Beraldo with a basic pass.
No one covered themselves in glory for Luis Enrique's side but, with defending this bad, they had no foundations on which to build a performance worth of how good they've been for the whole of 2025.
Tim Spiers
Sunday, August 17: Crystal Palace (home), Premier League, 2pm UK/9am ET
Wednesday, August 13: Tottenham Hotspur, UEFA Super Cup (Udine, Italy), 8pm UK/3pm ET